To be worried about these notes on DS's Medical notes

[dashoflime]

During my pregnancy, I moved house and, despite me updating the midwifes and registering with a new GP, three appointment letters for scans got sent to my old address. My "failiure to attend" those three times triggered a whole load of intervention including an investigation by social services, which was thankfully concluded very quickly. The social worker found that the mix up had been the fault of the NHS and has no further concerns about me. She also Encouraged me to make a complaint to the NHS and promised to write to all agencies and ask them to remove any notes on my file about not engaging with services.
The issue is refusing to go away however as today at my 6 week check up the GP asked me why I missed appointments.I explained the situation and said that I was disappointed that the information was still on file. The GP told me she couldn't remove the note but could add something amending it. When she showed me what she had added it said: "patient is extremely distressed by involvement of social services"
So now my records not only say I don't engage but also that social services were involved and that I am distressed about it. If I read those notes I would assume "extremely distressed" was a euphamism for shouty and irrational.
Am I being unreasonable to be concerned about this? I feel like I have been stereotyped as a bad parent already and I'm worried this will be held against me in future, for example if DS ever needs treatment for an injury or something.

Well i'm seeing lots of guidance and protocol, but no legislation saying a mother can be neglectful of an unborn child

It isn't the mother that is neglectful.

The LA has duties towards the unborn and the mother, which means an investigation can be carried out.

The UK would not go down the leglislation route at present as it isn't needed.

This is a safeguarding issue that is fully covered in other leglislation.

No punishment is directed towards the mother, that isn't what this is about, it is designed to be protective.

A mother can behave in a way during pregnancy that gives you concern for the welfare of the unborn child once it is born iyswim. Eg unsupported mum who drinks heavily and abuses drugs is unlikely to be able to meet the needs of her newborn infant. Unborn babies can be made subject to child protection plans but these relate to what happens to the baby after birth rather than to make the mother behave in any particular way.

Failure to attend appointments might be concerning as a red flag for the welfare of the woman as well as a possible risk factor for neglect or harm of the chid once born. Clearly in the case of the OP the error is from the health service and needs to be corrected.

Wait a minute viva! "a mother goes AWOL" - AWOL means "absent without leave". Are you seriously suggesting that a pregnant woman needs some sort of official permission to take a holiday?? .

Are you saying that if someone decides to move house, which may mean moving area during her pregnancy, she is required to discuss that with a HCP? She can't be trusted to book in (or not) in a new district?

I wouldn't dream of doing that (and in fact didn't) I just eventually went along to the GP when we got settled and said that I was pregnant.

I'm totally at what people are saying on this thread and glad I'm done with having babies.

Why didn't you get your post redirected?

Not at all, I just used an expression - seemingly the wrong one. I just meant that if they disappeared without anyone knowing where they'd gone.

They don't need permission but yes if a pregnant woman moved out the area and her community midwife didn't know then the community midwife would have to try and track her down. Normally this would be quite easy as you'd ask the gp and the gp would say "such and such gp in another town requested her notes" that midwife would then ring the midwife at that surgery and make sure she had booked in.

I'm sure that you and 99% of women can/should be trusted to move house house and sort out antenatal care in a new area. Sadly I also know that some women try to disappear off the radar for other reasons, some through their own choice and some for even worse reasons. It can very much be a child protection concern and even a concern for the well being and safety of the woman.

It's a requirement that hospitals have a proceedure in place to chase up and find women who have missed antenatal appointments.

carabos you are deliberately reading into this.

You eventually turned up.

Had you not and you were past a certain point in pregnancy then enquireis would have been made.

If you were locked in a room somewhere waiting to give birth and find out the gender before it was registered, then you would be extremely grateful that those enquiries take place.

Likewise if you had prenatal depression, you would, also eventualy be gladof the system that we have in the UK.

You may not need this protection, but thousands do, in our society and billions of women world wide.

You are picking up on what words suit you in viva's post.

That is fine, but those of us that know what has gone on in the past, that is now safeguarded against, realise why this is needed.

Not wanting this guidance in place is an extension of the 'i'm allright jack' attitude that seems to cross into the safety of the most vulnerable.

The system is there to protect, it isn't going to go backwards and be removed as it saves lives.

All that happens is a few checks take place, questions asked, if needed and then that is the end of it.

I look after a group of patients with a life threatening condition. If they tell us they are moving I organise a transfer of their care. If they don't tell us of their move I do several checks nationwide to try and transfer their care.

Because I'm trying to save their life...

Policies exist to protect me from any litigation saying that I didn't make enough effort to look after them.

The paranoid might interpret this as not allowing them free will, not trusting them, trying to control etc etc

It is a fine line between care and control, but i have worked in social care (and take note of what hapens in our society) for 28 years and we don't have the tragedies, or as many people slipping through the net, with serious consequences, that could have been prevented with a greater emphasis on safeguarding, as we used to.

Also the lives of the most vulnerable and females, in general is improving.

Birdsgottafly, I don't think the OP is just quibbling with the level of supervision, but more with the wording of the amendment of her files.

I have been in a similar situation several times, where I have pointed out a mistake, and the amendment has been made in such a way as to suggest that it is my reaction, not the initial mistake, that is the problem.

This can affect how medical professionals react to your concerns at a later stage and hence can delay diagnosis of a genuine condition. If they have already been told that you have anxiety problems and get extremely distressed, they may be less keen to do that extra test to rule out an unusual condition. There are some seriously dodgy bits in dd's medical files: places where the doctor has clearly heard the direct opposite of what I actually said, because he has already had a preconceived idea of me as a parent. Fortunately most of it is now buried under so much other stuff that it would take a very dedicated doctor to find them.

I am all for control. But not for the cliches of over-anxious mothers to be trotted out every time you disagree with the doctors.

Why would it have been so difficult in the present case to have written an amendment that simply stated:

"It has later been shown that the lack of attendance was due to a misunderstanding: SS have no concerns about this patient".

That would have covered the case without laying either side open to further criticism or suspicion.

For some medical professionals, blaming the patient seems to be something of a default reaction. In fact, I have noticed that comments about my state of mind are almost exclusively confined to doctors who have made some kind of misdiagnosis of dd.

Thanks for all the replies, particularly Toothbrushtheif and Birdsgottafly.

Here is the letter I've drafted to the hospital ;

"Dear (complaints person),

Complaint RE: Maternity Department, Patient dashoflime and son,

I am writing to complain about an admin error which I believe was made by the Maternity department at the Hospital.

I moved house on 20/05/12 from (old address) to my current address (new address)

I telephoned the Hospital to inform them of my new address and also registered with a new GP and midwife at (local) Health Centre.

In May I had a bleed and attended the hospital as an emergency. A scan was performed and I was informed that my baby was too small and that additional scans would be needed to monitor. I was told that an appointment would be sent by post.

Unfortunately it appears that my records had not been updated with the new address and I understand that the appointment letter was sent to my old address. I understand that two subsequent appointment letters were also sent to my old address.

As a result of these errors, I was unaware of the appointments and therefore could not attend. The necessary scan was eventually carried out on 19/07/12, it was found that the baby was in distress and an emergency C-Section was performed.

Although, thankfully, my baby and I are both healthy, the delay in obtaining treatment could have had very serious consequences.

In addition my ?failure to attend? triggered an investigation by Social Services. This caused me additional cause of stress at a difficult time and also created unnecessary work for Social Services. The investigating social worker, ??., found that my failure to attend had been entirely due to the letters being sent to the wrong address and has encouraged me to make this complaint.

The error continues to affect me, as I understand that both my own and my son?s medical records now show failure to attend appointments and social services involvement, but do not make clear the role of the clerical error in this. In the absence of this context, I believe the information gives a misleading impression.

I therefore request that Princess Royal Hospital acknowledge their error.

I also request that a further note is added to both my own and my son?s medical records, making clear the role of the error in both the ?failure to attends? and the subsequent involvement of social services.

I look forward to the speedy resolution of this problem,

Yours Sincerely,

dashoflime"

Unexpected Item: The baby is fine thanks. Still a bit on the small side but basically ok.

VivaLaBeaver: Im very impressed at you driving round Europe with a new baby. That sounds brilliant

Sounds a good letter.

Yes Europe was fab though I think when I told the HV we'd been living in a tent and a vauxhall cavalier for nearly two months with a new baby she probably did want to ring SS.

Glad your DS is ok OP

Just in case you hadn't realised (you might be fine with it anyway) - but the actual hospital name is in the last post.

(and from the experiences of friends with that particular hospital, I'm not surprised to hear it's them...)

That an excellent letter, well worded and you've kept emotion out of it which I imagine isn't easy. All the best of luck.

Excellent letter - I might possibly throw in a reference to the Data Protection Act and ask them to confirm that they intend to reassure you they are going to comply with it :)